Well, we have been in Arkansas now for almost 4 years. It's so hard to believe that it's been that long! The time has just flown by! And it's funny how being here has changed us just a bit. We haven't started saying "All y'all" yet, but our 2 little boys say "bye" with a cute southern drawl sometimes, that cracks me up.
The other day, PJ (our almost 12-year old) was reading the New Era magazine and it said something about a 10th Ward that somebody was in. He came and showed it to me and said, "This says the 10th Ward!! Can you believe there would be that many wards?!" I told him that when I was little, I was in the 20th Ward in Logan, Utah, and then later in the 33rd Ward (although I wasn't active at the time). He was shocked, and didn't believe me at first! In Utah there are tons of LDS churches and wards all over the place, and here, in Bentonville, there are 4 wards (and 2 church buildings). The neighborhood that we lived in, in Saratoga Springs, UT had 2 LDS church buildings (and I can't remember how many wards) in just one subdivision, and it took us only 5 minutes to walk to our church building. Now it takes us about 15 minutes to drive there. When we moved here, we were told our subdivision had a lot of families that were members of our church (there were 4 other families besides us), whereas our subdivision in Utah that we moved from had probably 4 families that were NOT members of our church. Our kids get excited if there are any kids in their school classes that are members of our church. In Utah, most of their classes were LDS kids. When we lived in Utah, we were about 20 minutes from 4 different temples. Now, we have to drive 4 HOURS to get to the closest temple, in Oklahoma City!
In Utah, the weather wasn't anything exciting to talk about. Here, it's ALWAYS something new and surprising! It can go from a sunny & warm 70 degrees, down to freezing, with ice and snow, and then back up to warm weather, severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings, all within a week! Our kids get so excited when they see snow, because we only get a few days of snow here each year (which is perfectly fine with me--I don't like to shovel it or drive in it)!
When we moved here, I had never seen a real armadillo or opossum. Now, I get to see them as road kill, along with skunks, deer, and other various wildlife, all year round. :) We had never seen fireflies before we moved here, and now every summer and fall, we get to enjoy the little lightning bugs, lighting up in the evening. I thought that I'd really miss the beautiful mountains of Utah when we moved here, and I do a little bit, but I LOVE all the thick green trees everywhere here. We don't have to water our lawn or garden hardly ever, because we get plenty of rain and it's quite humid in the spring & summer, and our grass stays green and our garden grows amazingly well.
When we moved here, I was terrified of the thoughts of living in an area that had tornado warnings, and always said I'd live anywhere except Kansas or Oklahoma, because I didn't want to worry about tornados. And now we are right on the border, and get amazing storms every spring.
We've definitely had more opportunities to share our beliefs with our friends & neighbors and others in the area since moving here (as well as learning about their beliefs too), and one of Tessa's best friends (who is Catholic), even came to her baptism when she turned 8, which was really great. When we moved here, we definitely felt like it was where we were supposed to be. It was a great opportunity for Neil's career, and for our family, but we had the idea that we'd be here for a couple years for Neil's career, and then try to move back out West (hopefully back to Utah), to be closer to family. But we really do love it here. We love the people, the community, and the weather (especially the mild winters). We still can't say that we'll be here FOREVER, because we know ourselves well enough to know that we've said that before, and ended up moving, but we love it here and could be here for a very long time. So, we'll see...
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2 comments:
I loved growing up in the Midwest. I love living outside of UTah in lush green trees. I miss the trees. There's good and bad about every place...but I totally get what you are saying.
We've lived here almost 7 years and I can finally imagine that my kids might actually go to Bentonville High! =) But life has a way of throwing curveballs, so you can never be too sure... However, this is a GREAT place to be! I'm glad your family moved here.
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